


Ailes de Jais

by Akallabeth



Series: Les Misérables Fix Fic Game [5]
Category: Les Misérables (TV 2018), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: BBC Bead Bird returns, Don’t copy to another site, Gen, POV Inanimate Object
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 05:05:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17656454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akallabeth/pseuds/Akallabeth
Summary: Fantine hatched a bird of glass. Anton Chekhov looked on in confusion.





	Ailes de Jais

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PilferingApples](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilferingApples/gifts).



Allette hatched from an egg of glass. The hands that give her shape are calloused, but their touch is soft and kind. She is jet. Her mother is gold and pearls.

**

The next one is dark. Troubling. Allette would not judge anyone by their albedo. Nonetheless, the space--the pocket--that she finds herself in is dark, and has no light to reflect. The pocket-bearer is cold and compassionless, like the void around Allette. 

**

There is a new one now. Allette must have slept in that dark pocket. The new hands are older, tough and scarred, but they handle her gently and the eyes on her are full of approval. 

"--wasting time and material", says the cold one. 

"An interesting design", mutters the gentle one, "good proportions. Pendants and focals?" Then, louder, "If the maker could--" 

The words are cut off by cries of "Monsieur le Maire!" and "Monsieur Madelaine!" Gentle-Hands sets Allette down among the papers.

She lies there for some time.

***

Allette falls into the new darkness with her fibrous friends. It is larger than the pocket, it's boundaries better defined--a box. There is no light, but there is company.

Once, the light comes. More company joins their box. Two of Allette's new friends gleam like her, but more brightly. They are silver, and reflect in beautiful ways. The others feel more like her old friends within the box. The new ones, however, are all named Franc.

** 

Allette spends a long time indeed in the box. She remembers her time outside, but it was very short compared to her time in the box. Her friends have longer memories. The Papers recall important business in the life of a small town, and Gentle-Hands who read them, and wrote some of them. The Francs have traveled far and wide, each with a different tale to tell. The Candlesticks are wisest of them all, and recall great scenes of lavish light, the shadows of upheaval, and finally the glow of humility and contentment. They know Gentle-Hands differently than the Papers, but will not say all.

After an eternity, the box opens again. The Candlesticks depart. Some of the Francs stay, and some go.

This scene reoccurs at intervals--some Francs leave. Neither her nor the Papers are touched. 

Her day finally comes. She is entangled with one of the Francs (who despaired of ever travelling again, and needed a hug), and is lifted out with the group. Gentle-Hands looks at her inquiringly, then puts her in his pocket. It is dark, and small, and lonely. Allette misses her friends, even as she wonders what next lies in store for her.

She is happy to see the Candlesticks again. Most of her time is spent in a new darkness--portmanteau--where she lives with Dress and Stockings and Petticoat and their family. They come out sometimes, always to the light of Allette's friends, the Candlesticks. Gentle-Hands always takes great care with them all.

**

One day, Gentle-Hands takes them each out more slowly than usual. He cherishes each of the garments as he lifts it from the portmanteau, then lays it out with precision. Last of all, he picks up Allette, and sets her down on Dress, like a brooch at the center of Dress's neckline. Gentle-Hands weeps long into the night, though they all attempt to comfort him.

**

They wait, after that. Not as long as in the box, but longer than any of them recall. Gentle-Hands takes them out as before. He lingers on Allette, placing her beside a new Paper as he writes. When that is complete, he stares at the Paper for a long time. Gentle-Hands finally folds the Paper twice, then places them with the Candlesticks.

**

Allette does not understand what happened to Gentle-Hands. The Candlesticks promise to explain soon.

The next hands to pick her up are small and soft. They remind Allette of her mother. Small-Hands' eyes glisten, the drops trailing from them refract light.

Allette recognizes her sister.

**Author's Note:**

> For Pilferingapples, who asked the all-important question: what happened to Fantine's bead bird?
> 
> [The alternative version of this story, brought to you by three days of insomnia: Bead Bird wrecks a trail of bloody vengeance across Paris, as Catherine's sidekick. They form an Avengers-style group of inanimate objects, joined by Marius's locket, and Courfeyrac's hat. The Bishop's candlesticks disapprove of their vigilante ways, but they're generally on the same side.]
> 
> I remembered after writing this that JVJ burned much of his paperwork before leaving Montreuil-sur-Mer, so pretend for this fic that some of it wound up in his chest of buried treasure.


End file.
